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ESK will again run with the WKA Road Racing Series as lastyear. We have added an additional eventat North Carolina Center for Automotive Research in North Carolina which shouldprove to be both exciting and challenging.

Well the 2013 ESK season is in therecord books finishing up with Summit Point event. Just a recap of VIR and Summit pointevents……

VIR was going to be the premier event of the season and it did not disappoint! The fullcourse proved to be both challenging and exciting!!! With top speeds over 125mph and goingup through the esses flat out at over 100mph, proved to be some of the highlights….

Getting used to the new track and finding the limitstook some time with the high speedcorners, and the oak tree turn, minus the oak tree, but it was still there in spirit.Signed up for the weekend events were, Jim Brannon, Chuck Bunnell, and Chris Reinhardt.

Saturdays race was a little unusual as the ESK group was started behind both theUnlimited’s and the Stock Honda’s, with a 15 second split between them. It wasChris Reinhardt in the Honda CRF450 powered CR2 MotorSports factory Cobalt chassis withanother trademark holeshot and out front for an early lead that was never contested. JimBrannon was running in second place to near the end, when he retired with an engineissues, which would find Chuck Bunnell finishing second and Jim Brannon third.

Pre-final laps times:

Chris Reinhardt 02:11.489

Jim Brannon 02:14.210

Chuck Bunnell 02:17.937

In Sunday’s race, the Unlimited’s and ESK karts were started together and StockHonda’s went off last, which made the race a little less dramatic than the pre-finalwith all the passing that went on. The start was much like the pre-final with ChrisReinhardt out again for an early lead, Jim Brannon running second, and Chuck Bunnellthird. It was thatway until nearly the end of the race when Jim Brannon caught Chris bysurprise, and then it was on! The two swapped the lead maybe five or six times until thelast lap, when Jim went into turn one just a little too deep, and was not able to returnto the track. So it was Chris Reinhardt first, Jim Brannon second, and Chuck Bunnellthird.

Final Lap times:

Chris Reinhardt 02:11.492

Jim Brannon 02:11.519

Chuck Bunnell 02:19.114

Points After round three:

Chris Reinhardt 84

Jim Brannon 73

Chuck Bunnell 51

Woodbridge Kart Club hosted their 2nd and final round of the ESK series at Summit PointRaceway. It was an unusually warm weekend for a September. Signed up for this ICE eventwere Jim Brannon, Chris Reinhardt and a new comer, Douglas Baron. There were no qualifyingrounds on Friday practice so the grid was set from ESK points. Prefinal was set to go,Chris Reinhardt with the Holeshot, Jim Brannon running second, and Douglas Baron, did notgrid. About 2 laps in and Chris Reinhardt retired with a flat tire, leaving Jim Brannonthe

win.

Pre-final laps times:

Chris Reinhardt 01:21.299

Jim Brannon 01:22.450

Douglas Baron No Time

Final was set with Jim Brannon on the pole Chris Reinhardt pulling the holeshot and theearly lead. That’s the way it stayed till the half way point where coming out of turn12, something broke on the Cobalt kart of Chris Reinhardt, handing the win again to JimBrannon. Later inspection found a failed sprocket carrier. The overall win for the weekendwent to Jim Brannon, but the war was won by Chris Reinhardt in the Honda CRF450 poweredCR2 MotorSports Cobalt factory chassis, winning the 2013 inaugural ESK ICE Championship.

Registration for VIR is open and will be done through Woodbridge Kart Club. You can mail in, go on their website and do it online, or sign up at the track. Please note, entries after the cut off date or at the track will have an additional charge.....

Please note, to be eligible for the weekend awards, you must be an ESK member which can be done through this website, or at the track.

At the track at Mid Ohio, I'm a little disapointed more of the large Superkart Field didn't supoort the ESK event.... Oh well, we'll keep plugging away...

ESK Entries

FE

Mark Croslyn II

ICE

Jim Brannon

Chuck Bunnell

Chris Reinhardt

Jim Brannon has been chasing gremlins all weekend, Chuck Bunnell only had the one qualifying session as practice, he was busy flagging the event, and Mark Croslyn rolling in late Friday night...

Qualifying was un eventful, I believe Jim Brannon had to sit that one out, Chuck Bunnell using that only session to try some new equipment that turned out to be faulty, so it was any easy ride for Chris Reinhardt to take pole for the Satuday Pre-Final....

ICE

Chris Reinhardt Pole 1:45.279

Chuck Bunnell 1:48.174

Jim Brannon No Time.

Saturday Pre-Final was pretty uneventful as well, Chuck again busy flagging was unable to race in the pre-final, Jim seem to get a handle on he troubles and had what was his best laps of the weekend so far.

Pre-Final

FE

1 Marc Croslyn II No Time

ICE

1 Chris Reinhardt 1:38.968

2 Jim Brannon 1:40.640

3 Chuck Bunnell DNS

The final race on Sunday saw a lengthy delay after the class that was first race on Sunday, required an Medivac for an injured driver. We were scheduled for last race before lunch break, we ended up running after lunch. Dart kart club had to cut the running time for each race in half due to the down time required to safely clear the track. Our thoughts go out to the injured driver as we hope for a speedy recovery, and hats off to DKC and track personnel for getting everything taken care of.

So, race was pretty uneventful, Marc Croslyn II broke a piston in the morning warm up and was unable to repair in time, Chuck Bunnell being the official flag man, could not leave his post due to the earlier days events, That left Jim Brannon and Chris Reinhardt to fight it out in the ICE class....

There was a clean start, about a 10 lap or so sprint race, Chris Reinhardt in the CR2 MotorSports CRF450 powered Cobalt out to an early lead, that was never challenged. Reinhardt won the pole, Pre-Final, and Final for a perfect weekend.

Looks like WKA has the Mid Ohio registration forms online. For some reason they have it all askew for the ESK series....

I have setup one price for the whole weekend, includes Friday Practice/Qualifying, Saturday Pre-Final, and Sunday Final. The pre-reg price is $385 until May 28th, after that and day of the event it's $425.

It was the day of mechanical failures for just about
everybody. I think the 1st one out was Chuck Bunnel with a broken pipe mount,
then Mark Croslyn with a broken master link on the PVP powered twin beast, then
Mark Croslyn II with a broken shift rod, then myself with an engine related
failure. Even Jim Brannon had to limp it home with a broken chain tensioner....

All in all, the mood was good, and everybody seemed to
enjoy themselves, looking forward to tomorrow's races.

It was a pretty good race with Mark Croslyn setting the
pace and Mark II in tow, Jim Brannon was out front but Chuck Bunnel, came
around him shortly after. Mark I pulled out a sizable lead nearly till the end
of the race till he didn't come around, post race comments were that the motor
was mis-firing and in an effort to try and figure out what was going on, he
missed the corner!!! Jim Brannon also dropped out, leaving Chuck and Mark II to
finish the race.

Ken Andersson had a mishap in the pits, keeping him from
racing in Sundays race, Chris Reinhardt had terminal engine issues that ended
his race on Saturday and could not be repaired in time for Sundays race.

I'd like to thank the WKA for letting us put on this
event, and all the people who make this happen at the track and in the office,
without them it wouldn't have come together, and a special thanks to the Dart
Kart Club people, that were a pleasure to work with!!!

I'm looking forward to our next event the WKA Road Race
National June 7th-9th at Mid Ohio hosted by DKC.